May Flowers
May Dreams‘ notion of “Bloom Day” is really impossible at this time of year. There is too much in flower to document it all. I strolled round the garden yesterday and found more than 30 things in flower.
Here’s a last look at the Easter lilies. They have been truly spectacular this year, but they are beginning to wilt in the heat.
This is native Canna flaccida in the bog, looking beautiful for the first and only time this year. Mary Waitzmann yanked this, or its ancestor, from a ditch near Darien. I love cannas, with their fine flowers and decorative leaves, but in this area they become riddled with pests, from leaf rollers to things that eat the flowers, so you just have to plant them where they can be admired from a great distance.
I picked up this Stokesia a couple of years ago for its really magnificent purple color. It is flourishing.
Here’s ‘Mutabilis,’ which is so tangled up in a Verbena bonariensis that it is hard to photograph. While weeding the other day, I discovered that V. bonariensis has seeded itself all over the place. I don’t remember it doing that in my previous garden.
I bought some Salvia greggii after admiring it on Pam/Digging’s blog. I had no idea it was so sprawly. I think I rather like it, as a change from all the very vertical salvias.
I am becoming very fond of ‘Ducher.’ It flowers a lot. I really like white flowers, and, at least so far, it has a fairly compact form.
The ruckus the frogs have been making every night is bearing offspring. There are tadpoles in the pond!
As a child tadpoles fascinated me and as an adult I still like the watch the transformation. Great picture.
Comment by nhnursery — May 21, 2008 @ 9:09 am
The Easter lilies are lovely. And I like ‘Ducher’ too. I replaced it once and planted the new one in a much sunnier place. I can’t believe how long it’s been flowering. I love white flowers for two reasons. They look cool and fresh in our sweltering heat. And they are beautiful in the dusk or moonlight, when it’s finally cool enough to be in the garden.
Comment by mss @ Zanthan Gardens — May 21, 2008 @ 4:27 pm
If you trim the Salvia greggii back hard after it blooms, it’ll keep a more compact, rounded shape, plus it’ll respond with another flush of flowers. I cut it back by one-third about three times during the growing season, and I cut it back by half in late winter, right before spring growth starts.
Comment by Pam/Digging — May 21, 2008 @ 8:27 pm
Oh, excellent. Thanks, Pam. I’ll do that.
Comment by karen — May 22, 2008 @ 7:00 am
Karen that Stokesia is beautiful love the purple color mine are blue might have to come see you in the fall to get a piece of that..
If the rain holds off this morning I’m going to stop by Joiner’s haven’t been yet this year.
Comment by cherry — May 23, 2008 @ 8:04 am
Cherry–Good luck at Joiner’s. I try not to go there at this time of year because I end up buying something(s) and then have a hard time keeping it alive through the summer heat! You’d be welcome to a chunk of the stokesia. It really is a lovely color.
Comment by karen — May 23, 2008 @ 8:06 am